Heart and Flesh
by Nashk
Summary: Shepard was a hero. She cheated death, destroyed a star system, and united the galaxy against reapers. It wasn't enough. Now, even her final rest is disturbed and she finds herself lost in a strange land. Can she find peace in this new world? Or will she just be dragged into another war? Only one thing is for certain, heroes never rest. Post ME3, early A:TLA.
1. Failure of the Flesh

The battlefield boomed to the steady rhythm of metal footsteps. Heat blistered in glowing trenches miles long. Ashes filled the air, the grimy gloom broken only briefly by rays of moonlight as the reaper steadily approached a lone woman lying prone amongst a wrecked Mako. The dead were scattered everywhere, brave men and women who had been killed mid-charge by pitiless beams flashing through the dark from on high, or dragged into shadows by twisted mockeries of the human form that screamed unseen from the fog.

"SHEPARD, SUBMIT NOW." A voice thundered.

Shepard pushed herself painfully onto one elbow and coughed as the warped breastplate of her armor squeezed tightly against her. Blood and coolant poured through rents in her armor and splashed against the wrecked transport that sheltered her. The scars on her face glowed a dull red, casting shadows along her face.

She lifted her head to glare at the colossal monstrosity that loomed over the battlefield, and felt her blood run cold. The monster called itself Harbinger and it had showed no mercy.

"I will not." She choked in a raspy voice. "None of us will. We can-"

"YOUR INTERFERENCE HAS ENDED. YOUR ALLIES HAVE FALLEN. YOU HAVE FAILED."

Shepard could only glare in response. It was true. The attack had been an absolute disaster. Even the combined might of a last ditch galactic fleet had been broken like porcelain against steel. Nothing they threw at the reapers seemed to phase them. The Harbinger shrugged off missiles, mass drivers and krogan in equal measure as nothing more than a light breeze.

She hauled herself up, limbs groaning with the effort, but like the good soldier she was steeled herself against the pain, and managed an unsteady stand against the reaper.

Harbinger paused, almost hesitant, before it leaned down to loom over Shepard.

"THIS DEFIANCE ONLY DELAYS THE INEVITABLE."

Her lips twisted into a rueful grin. Inevitable? The galaxy had united like never before and fought with the intense fury of a cornered animal. Defeat might be inevitable, but there was no way in hell she was just going to let them walk over her, walk over the galaxy.

_'Besides, wrex would kill me if I gave up here.'_

"Inevitable? You've personally seen what I am capable of, I know you can die. I've killed two of you. And I. Am. Not. Impressed." She spat as she pointed her useless scrap of a pistol at the reapers large, glowing "eyes".

She was interrupted, however, by a crackle on her comm unit.

"Commander are you there? Hold on! Help is coming!"

Shepard's breath caught in her throat. That was Joker's voice! If he was still alive then… then her friends might be safe.

Safe? Could anyone truly be safe anymore?

"Commander if you are receiving, go to ground. The turians punched a hole through the cuttlefish and there is about to be a whole lot of firepower coming your way. Commander can you hear me? EDI can you clear up this interference?" The voice crackled to silence.

Her attention was snapped back to reality as the massive reaper shifted. Its eyes glowed crimson with menace.

"YOUR ATTACKS ARE PRIMITIVE. I SHALL SHOW YOU TRUE POWER."

Fear knotted Shepard's stomach. Harbinger could not be allowed to take even a single shot at the Normandy. Not now. Not ever.

Her perception slowed as she struggled to climb the Mako. Her bronze skin began to glow a bright, brilliant blue and the familiar buzzing of her biotics flared to life. With every step her body screamed in defiance but she ignored it. She wouldn't have to feel it for long.

"HARBINGER!" The machine was forced to take notice of her once more. Its body jerking back to face the roaring soldier. Its eyes focused tightly and thrummed with power.

"FUTILE SHEPARD. THE CYCLE CONTINUES."

A deafening roar filled the air.

'Shit!' This was going to hurt.

She pulled with her power and jumped to the side just a second too late. With a deafening roar the beam struck her in the left arm leaving nothing but ash and pain.

"FUCK"

Stubbornly she raised her remaining arm and she screamed, a scream from the depths of her soul, a scream to challenge even the roar of a reaper. With the last of her strength she grabbed the Mako's cannon, and with the sound of groaning metal wrenched it toward the reaper. The biotic amp at the base of her skull blared critical-overload warnings even as her amp began sparking in her ear. Her hand and the cannon thrummed with deadly energy.

Shepard fired. A massive blue orb launched with force toward the reaper just as it shot a beam toward her.

The warp charged round slammed into the red beam, turning a bright purple and piercing straight through the reapers eye continuing through toward the heavens.

_'Heh, fuck you and yours Harbinger. Sorry Tal-'_

The last thing Shepard saw before oblivion took her was the massive reaper tumbling upon her.


	2. Into the Abyss

Chapter 2: Into The Abyss

Shepard eagerly approached the crumbling throne. She didn't care much for the rotting shithole the krogan called Tuchanka, but she did care for the lumbering jerk currently tossing aside his guard to meet her.

"Shepard! My friend! You look well for dead. I should have known the void couldn't hold you." He rumbled.  
She gave a goofy grin and slapped her hand into his claw. He squeezed, she squeezed back, and suddenly Tuchanka was bearable.

"You don't look half bad yourself Wrex, but you must be getting soft. I only see two new scars since I last saw you."

The world began to quake, the walls around them melted like sands in an hourglass, falling into an abyss of darkness. Shepard gasped and stumbled. Wrex stood still as a statue, smiling as if nothing was happening.

"Ha! You made the rise of the Urdnot possible. Virmire was a turning point, though not everyone was happy about it."

"Wrex! What are you doing? The ground is unstable, we have to leave!"

The world continued to disappear around them until only the small platform around the throne remained. Shepard frantically began searching the edges. It was all gone. The krogan, the Normandy, gone.

"Destroying Saren's genophage cure freed us from his manipulation. I used that to spur the clans to unify under Urdnot." Wrex continued.

Screaming in frustration, she stomped to Wrex and grabbed him by the shoulders. He didn't move. No matter what she did he didn't seem to see the devastation. Why didn't he react to the world around him?  
Then Wrex exploded into red light, sending Shepard tumbling backwards off the edge of the platform. She screamed. Flailing in mid air, a familiar face blinked into existence.

"ORGANIC LIFE IS NOTHING BUT A GENETIC MUTATION, AN ACCIDENT. YOUR LIVES ARE MEASURED IN YEARS AND DECADES. YOU WITHER AND DIE. WE ARE ETERNAL." Sovereign roared.

Shepard clutched at her ears, trying not to panic even as she felt blood spill between her fingers. More voices began to join the massive reaper.

"Nobody would give me a mirror. How bad is it?"

"They did what they could, but you're going to have some scars. I'm sorry."

"Some women find facial scars attractive. Mind you, most of these women are Krogan."

She could feel herself fall faster… and faster… more and more voices cried out at her. Cursing her. Praising her.

"Shepard-Commander, I must go to them. I'm... I'm sorry. It's the only way." The metallic voice echoed in the darkness.

"Legion, the answer to your question… was 'yes'."

"I know, Tali, but thank you. Keelah se'lai."

It was bad enough that she was hearing voices. To see their faces… What was going on? Why was this happening?

"After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began."

'Tali!'

Shepard choked out a sob. The darkness flashed once more, and all that remained was Sovereign.

"YOUR WORDS ARE AS EMPTY AS YOUR FUTURE. I AM THE VANGUARD OF YOUR DESTRUCTION. THIS EXCHANGE IS OVER…"

She convulsed, and the word pierced her. She hissed, she gasped for breath. Then everything faded away, leaving nothing but a lone woman falling to darkness.

* * *

Shepard awakened to blackness and the cool sensation of water all over her body. With an inaudible groan she attempted to move… Only to find her muscles wouldn't respond. This should have been troubling perhaps, she couldn't breath underwater, but the only thing she could feel was an all encompassing peace. There was a sluggishness to her mind, like the morning after shore leave on Omega, only this time Jack wasn't here to...

'Harbinger!'

The thought of her enemy pierced her like a bullet, bringing some energy to her thoughts. The last thing she remembered was the Harbinger's attack, and then… nothing. Where was she? What happened to the fleet?  
Struggling to turn Shepard snarled at her rebellious limbs.

'Ugh, why is it so difficult to think?'

Almost a decade had passed since Commander Shepard graduated from the Alliance N7 program. Her body had been hardened with intense conditioning, gene therapy, and cybernetics. She had been taught how to survive on harsh worlds, kill in countless different ways, and most importantly she had been taught to never give up. This lesson had saved her life on many occasions, and she was not about to break tradition now.

Shepard turned her head and scanned her surroundings.

'Yup, still dark.' She sighed.

She could see no further than a few yards in any direction before the murky water clouded into an oppressive, black, curtain. The only source of light, the dull, red, illumination emanating from her implants, served only to enhance the claustrophobia of the environment. A glance at her body explained the intense cold she felt, she was naked.

She was vulnerable, alone, and slowly sinking into a seemingly endless abyss without an oxygen supply. It suddenly struck her that she hadn't needed to breathe the entire time she had been conscience, but she couldn't seem to muster the energy to react to that fact. She was tired. How long had she been fighting the reapers? How much suffering had she gone through? How many lives had she ended just to delay an enemy that destroyed everything anyway? There were only so many times one could fight indoctrinated civilians before the nightmares came.

All she wanted to do was to rest. Yes, just letting go sounded good. All she had to do was let herself fall. Let gravity do its work and carry her, she had done enough hadn't she? All she needed to do was rest.

Rest.

"Ah, and what is this?" An oily voice broke the silence, snapping Shepard out of her trance. "For as long as I can remember I have lurked here, between the worlds. I have witnessed countless curiosities fall into my province, blissfully unaware while I watched their slumber."

Shepard felt something stir the water behind her, and it grabbed her leg. A thick black cord, its outline glowing an angry red, grasped her with crushing strength as the unseen entity laughed. "Poor things, pathetic things, all I have to do is wait patiently and you fall right into my grasp. However…" Shepard screamed as the the branded her with an icy burn. The cold coursed through her veins and filled her mind and body with the freeze, her skin frosted and the intensity of the cold threatened to make her blackout.

"I have seen the fall of civilizations and witnessed the birth of countless new life. And yet, they fall here. They always come here in the end. And yet, none have sparked my interest nearly as much as you. You scald where others are merely lukewarm. In this darkness you burn with something I have never seen before! I want this power, I need this power! You will be my vessel as I feast on your strength. You will receive my brand, and I will drink your soul. Now, scream for me!"

Immediately Shepard twisted to face her foe, lashing out with a biotically charged fist, striking harmlessly against the soft skin of her assailant. It chuckled in response, a huge mouth splitting into a menacing smirk. It was a creature of sharp angles, with skin as black as the dark water s crisscrossed with bright red patterns that glowed with mesmerizing pulses.

Shepard kicked with her free foot and struck the tentacle wrapped around her leg. The thick appendage only tightened in response, and pulled her closer to that monstrously toothy grin.

"YES!" The creature pulled Shepard through the water. "You are a fighter, a leader of armies. You see yourself as a champion against the things that lurk in the dark, don't you?"

Shepard tried to reply, but only managed to fill her lungs with frost. She whipped around, her body filled with painful energy, and clawed at the cords now crushing her chest. Her hands scratched uselessly against its oily skin, only managing burn her hands from the cold.

"Look at you." It said with glee. "I can feel it, once you stood among those you called friends. Once you stood before nations, and led them to battle. Now look at you! You have fallen, a lost soul like any other. You challenged the gods and were struck down. But I can make use of you. I will not let you fall to your rest. When I am done you will be my thrall, you will remember your defeat, you will remember the scope of your failure, and how completely pitiful it was. When I am done, I will use you to find those you care for, and you will know you helped feed them to me. Everything drifts through here eventually, after all."

Shepard bit back a curse as blow after blow struck against her. She would struggle out of its grasp for a moment, only to be caught again as two more appendages appeared from the darkness to bind her wrists, and constrict her neck. She resisted, but her strength was nothing compared to the behemoth before her. She could feel her consciousness slipping, and raged inwardly as her struggle proved ineffective.

Then, lights appeared.

The lights were small, dim, points blinking against the endless darkness like distant stars. They drifted slowly, and approached from all directions. The creature didn't notice at first, its focus was on her. One dim point brightened more, and more until the light filled Shepard's vision and blinded her, causing her to shut her eyes. She could hear the monster scream in pain and feel it thrash with rage. The light radiated intense heat that boiled away the water around her, but left her unharmed.

Shepard convulsed, her limbs thrashed, and she was released as her assailant recoiled.

Slowly, the pain subsided and Shepard drifted free in the water. Her muscles feeling as if she had just ran a marathon; her heart pounded intensely in her chest. Gently, she could feel several hands grasp her body and steady her. A loud, electric warbling filled her ears. It somehow sounded familiar, and it filled her with hope and dread in equal measure.

She raised her head as something drifted forward into the light, water boiling and foaming furiously around it. It was humanoid, tall and grey with metal plates and tubing snaking throughout its form. Its head curved forward like a hood, and where its face should be was a single ocular light. A large hole was punched through its chest, though it didn't seemed particularly bothered by this fact. The hole looked like it was patched haphazardly with what seemed like old Alliance armor.

The frozen touch of the demon was gone, and with it the painful energy it inflicted. Shepard's eyes drooped as fatigue hit her. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad just to let go for a moment… The world could go one without her.

The being droned then, and the electrical warbling blended into recognizable words…

"Shepard-Commander." The eye shifted and focused upon her. Plates around its "face" moved, and furrowed like a brow. "Situation is hazardous. I do not recommend entering a low powered state."

"Legion!" Shepard cried in surprise, snapping herself awake. Confused Shepard grabbed at her throat. Her mouth moved, but no sound escaped her lips.

Legion peered at Shepard. Its eye locked with hers and she felt a puzzling rush of reassurance, and then confusion. This should not be possible. Legion had died in the battle of Rannoch, she had seen his body disintegrate with her own eyes.

"Shepard-Commander." Legion turned, and looked out into the abyss. "Time is short. We cannot engage it for long."

Shepard froze, not understanding. "Legion, what the hell is going on?"

"I repeat, time is short."

A commotion behind Shepard drew her attention. Countless geth, each similar to legion, although in a much better state of repair, knelt to her. Two of them were next to her, and held her gently, but firmly, keeping her from free floating into the abyss. Their glowing lights shone like beacons through the darkness, and each exuded a sense of peace. Behind them in the distance, the creature howled in rage as geth raised rifles and fired chittering shots into its oily hide. It lashed out, swiping its deadly coils into the crowd, every stroke seized a wailing synthetic and crushed it. Their bodies disintegrated into ash, and clouded the water in a way that played eerily off the light of the geth's eyes.

Shepard suddenly wished she still had her gun.

"The Old Machines search for you. The creatures in this place search for you. We have come to encrypt your data, Shepard-Commander."

Legion opened his omni-tool. After a moment, a tear in the water appeared. Shepard watched as the gash spread, and felt a gentle tug as water flowed into the rift.

"There is little time. We will hold the demon at bay. Shepard-Commander must prioritize entering the rift."

"Legion, no! I can't let you sacrifice yourself again. I… I don't know what is going on or how any of this is even possible, but I will not abandon you to that thing!"

"You misunderstand." Legion drifted against Shepard. He seemed taller than Shepard remembered. He now stood much taller than her by many feet, which forced her to crane her neck up at his face. "You do not abandon the geth. The geth choose to self-determinate. We await the creators. We will guide them when they come, just as we chose to guide you. We are not a sacrifice. We have achieved consensus." He stated firmly.

Tightly, but gently, Legion grabbed Shepard by the shoulders and pushed her backwards toward the rift. She now had a full view of the battle that raged before her. The geth fought with perfect coordination. Countless rifles fired in tandem at the demon, and the weapons created countless wounds that oozed glowing ichor into the water. The creature bellowed angrily, but fought back with no sign of slowing. Now the red marks pulsed with a dangerous radiance, and white beams shot from its coils, the rays carved a line through the synthetic swarm with gut-clenching ease.

"If you won't tell me what is going on, then tell me something." Shepard swallowed, a strange feeling for being submerged underwater, a pit filled her stomach. "Am I dead?"

Legion considered the question for a moment, an eternity in synthetic time Shepard knew.

"No. Shepard-Commander, you have a soul."

legion turned to join its synthetic brethren, rifle in hand. Before the current obscured her vision with foam, Shepard watched the last faint glimpses of wailing synthetics united as one to fight the demon.


	3. An Unexpected Guest

Chapter 3: An Unexpected Guest

Suki stared nervously at the sky.

The storm that boomed in the distance with lightning lancing across the sky was unbelievable. Suki had heard a storm was coming (and according to the aching joints of old sailors, a big one.) She just hadn't thought it would be this big.

Another peek revealed a strange phenomenon in the sky. An eerie gathering of clouds overhead that shook the sky with the constant arcing of green lightning. The strange site jogged memories of old stories that used to be passed around the village.

'If the sky be shaking and the sea be raging, angry the spirits are. Remember that girl.' One sailor had told her. She had always loved the old tales about spirits and those who met them like the Avatar's of old, but as she shivered next to her fire with nothing but a small alcove for shelter, those old stories lost some of their magic.

"Spirits." She breathed.

The storm had grown into a frenzy then, and wind began to blow with incredible force. Leaves fell and swept over gnarled roots as trees shuddered against the gale.

Whatever was causing this, nature or spirits, had to have a sense of humor. Today was the anniversary of Kyoshi's independence from the conquerer Chin the Great. The day when the namesake of the island, Avatar Kyoshi, moved the land itself to protect her people. That was why she was even out here in this stupid weather at all, to meditate on what it meant to uphold Kyoshi's ideal as a warrior. A rite of passage it was suppsoed to be. An effort that now seemed futile as a stray bolt of lightning glassed a strip of beach a short distance away from her camp.

Suki swore under her breath, backing away from her fire to lean back against the stone wall. She watched as the sea began to rise, tossing driftwood and debris along the now ruined beach.

Still, Suki's enthusiasm wasn't dampened. Kyoshi's spirit watched over the island, and she cared about her people. It was vital to remember the past, to remember the legendary deeds of their savior. Even if that history was represented by a dingy old statue in the center of town.

The air stilled, pulling Suki out of her thoughts, and for a few merciful moments it seemed the storm had passed. There was nothing but the sounds of the sea and the distant flash of light in the sky.

Suki thought for a moment and dared to peek her head out of the alcove to get a better look. This weather confused her to no end. One instant a massive storm threatened her existence, the next complete and utter calm. She considered running home to her village. It wasn't all that far, a half hour run at most…

An intense roar shattered that hope. The sky seemed to contract and distort in the air, and the stars rippled in waves as if they were nothing more than the reflections in a puddle. The stars swelled outward, then pulled inward, compressed tightly into a single bright light.

Then the sky exploded.

A great torrent of water and detritus poured onto the beach like a waterfall. Mist spread from the impact, and clouded the surrounding area with white, ethereal tendrils that snaked over the land. The earth rattled with the force and weight of the fall.

_'What's happening?' s_he thought frantically as she scrambled to dodge a large chunk of debris as it shot into her shelter. '_It feels like the entire island is falling apart!'_

A loud boom interrupted her thoughts, and Suki's mouth hung open as something new plummeted from the sky, and watched wordlessly as it crashed limply into the sand.

She shielded her eyes against the wind, straining to see what had fallen. Whatever it was, it didn't look like debris. In fact she could almost swear…

Frantically, Suki slipped out of the camp, not bothering to secure her gear. She dashed over the stony border and leaped nimbly over rocks and tree roots onto the beach. The view before her was breathtaking. She had witnessed the chaos from a distance, but now, up close… She had never seen so much water fall from the sky.

Suki perched herself on a large rock that straddled the border between sand and forest. She strained her eyes against the wind, and searched. A few fretful moments later she confirmed her suspicion, someone had fallen from that rift. She couldn't see clearly through the water, but it looked like the stranger was being pressed prone by the sheer volume of water falling from the sky. If something wasn't done soon…

Without further hesitation, she launched from the rock and sprinted with all her might. The water was beginning to flood the beach, water rising fast, and that hole in the sky showed no signs of disappearing any time soon. If she couldn't get to the stranger, they would definitely drown, and she would not, COULD NOT allow that.

The wind challenged her every step. The water rose to her knees, and the undercurrent threatened to drag her off her feet. Her battle paint, white with stark flashes of red along her eyes, was quickly washed away. Her armor, made of thick padded cloth, began to weigh her down as it filled with water and was quickly abandoned to the greedy tide.

_'What kind of an idiot am I?' _Suki grumbled internally as she approached her goal.

The stranger turned out to be a woman. She was naked, surprisingly, her clothes probably having been lost to the storm. That was bad, exposure was no laughing matter. On closer inspection she found the woman's body was incredibly muscular and hardy, her eyes lingering on the countless scars scattered about her, each an untold story of strife and triumph. Her dark skin marked her as possibly one of the water-tribesmen from the poles. What one of them was doing this far out was a mystery, but it gave her hope that she could be saved. Water tribesmen were incredibly hardy when it came to surviving wet and cold conditions.

_'Focus, Suki!'_

She struggled to grab the woman. The tide had risen to her waist, and this close to the rift water fell like a solid wall. it pressed her down and slowed her movements. Her hands slipped, unable to find purchase on the stranger. She felt her feet slide beneath her, and that was that. Water pressed in on her from all sides. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't see. Her hands clawed at the sandy floor frantically, and the ground slipped from her fingers.

Then the woman stirred. Her body jerked to life, and she struggled to her feet against the water, spluttering as sandy sludge sprayed at her face. She was yelling something then, but Suki couldn't understand her though the roar of the water. All she could do was stare at the woman's glowing face…

_'Wait, what?'_

She was glowing. The stranger's body was wreathed in radiant blue flames that pulsed with energy. There was a deep humming sound, and the woman extended her hand. The water was blown away, replaced instead with a shimmering sphere that sheltered the two women in a protective shell. Water cascaded harmlessly against the dome.

Suki was dumbfounded. This wasn't any sort of bending she was familiar with and this woman… She glowed! That's not normal! Looking closely she could see that even the scars on the woman's face glowed, albeit a bright red in contrast to the shimmering blue like little firefly's dancing around a fire.

'If the sky be shaking...'

A spirit. By Kyoshi she was standing face to face with a spirit. That had to be it, what else could it be? A giant hole in the sky, a naked woman, this blue sphere of light… There was no doubt. But then, what did she want? Spirits don't do anything without good reason. Usually the reason is some poor villager disturbing a sacred pebble or tree or something, but never without cause. What in the name of Kyoshi would cause a spirit this powerful to manifest like this?

Suki flinched as the spirit turned toward her and began to speak. Her eyes blazed much the same way her skin did, but with a bright purple instead of blue. Idly, Suki wondered why that was. The spirit's voice was hard to describe. It was low, measured and filled with authority. The words were all nonsense to her, not sounding like any language she knew, but she understood the nod toward dry land. Together they began to walk. The spirit kept her hands outstretched at all times, she looked tired, strained. _This doesn't make sense. If she is the cause of this then why is she protecting me? Why is holding back the water straining her so? This doesn't make sense!_

Smeared with mud and brine, Suki stole one final glance at the spirit walking beside her. Her chest tightened as she realized another problem. How was she going to explain this to the village chief? Would she even make it home? What was going to happen? She needed time to think about this. Most of all, she needed a warm bed.

Ah. And she should probably find some clothes for the spirit as well. If it would even let her dress it. It seemed friendly so far... And now she is thinking of dressing a spirit. She couldn't help but giggle at the thought, euphoric relief combined with the strangeness of the situation too much to bear. It echoed inside of the sphere, giving her voice a distant and hollow twang. It was laughter born of stress, spawned from the relief of survival. The spirit turned her head to give her a quizzical look, but she said nothing and kept up her pace.

The moment their feet touched solid land, the spirit dropped her protective sphere and together they collapsed to their knees with wheezing breath.

"Thank you." Suki murmured. The spirit gave no indication of hearing her.

Instead she was feeling at the back of her head, eyes wide. The spirit muttered something intelligible.

"Amp. Where's my amp?"


	4. The First Night

Chapter 4: The First Night

Shepard growled, dropping to the ground as yet another object whizzed past her head, smashing into a tree behind her. It was all wrong. Every time she tried to use her biotics, it would just accelerate, turning whatever it touched into a ballistic missile. All of her old physical mnemonics either didn't work, or did something completely different to what it was before. While this was frustrating enough, she was so used to casual use of her power that missteps were frequent, and turned what should have been a simple task into a live fire exercise. The small cave was now covered with odds and ends, cloth hung from jutting rock, and a fork was jutting straight out from the stone wall.

Which may or may not be why the campsite was a mess. Old Gunnery Chief Ellison would have loved this.

Shepard kicked aside the ruined bedroll, a victim of one of her more recent fits, and stepped out of the cave.

She stepped out of the cave, frowning. This was wrong. She had always been in control of her biotics. Ever since that first night, when she accidentally broke her mother's arm Shepard had learned to maintain her control. She'd always been forced to wrestle with her destructive nature. Watching all those years of discipline be undone right between her fingers seemed to devalue those precious years spent honing that control.

_Did you ever truly have control? It's always been one obstacle after another. Always something in the way._ A dangerous part of her mind whispered.

Before she could retort, footsteps sounded nearby, and Shepard turned toward the noise. It was her savior, the foolish girl with a lion's heart.

"Se wa, U'lle Na?" Said the girl she approached. She wore a simple, brown robe, the same as the borrowed outfit Shepard was wearing now. The girl paused, hesitantly, and knelt, offering up what looked like a rabbit, holding it by its extremely long ears.

Shepard snorted. "You know kid, you'd think after the tenth time i've growled at you to stop groveling, you'd wise up and listen."

The girl looked up at Shepard, but blinked blankly at her words. Honestly, she wasn't sure why she bothered. She couldn't understand a single word of english, or any other dozen of languages Shepard had tried.

In fact, with the chaos from the night before, it had taken half a night for Shepard to realize that the girl couldn't speak any language that she could recognize. While not fluent in all of them, as an N7 operative Shepard was trained to recognize every known language in citadel space, as well as a few from the Terminus systems in case of translation device failure.

The language the girl used wasn't any of them. In fact, the closest sounding language was Raloi! Well, vaguely. If you squinted.

Shepard didn't bother to hide her disdain as the girl continued to kneel. No matter what Shepard did, she wouldn't stop treating her like some sort of idol. It might have been cute, if it didn't remind her so much of Conrad.

"Alright, enough of that. Get up already." Shepard muttered.

The girl smiled nervously, not understanding. After a moment, she gestured toward the fire pit, and after a tired nod from Shepard, cautiously shuffled toward the cave. Shepard pointedly ignored the surprised gasp of the girl finding her mess, and turned on her omni-tool. The orange hologram flickered to life around her hand, heavy static permeating throughout the glowing gauntlet. The heavy storm still hadn't cleared up, grey clouds blocked the sky preventing any scans of constellations. If it would just clear up maybe she could find a familiar star system, maybe determine what system this was. Maybe get a distress call out, If there was anyone left to call. Make sense of everything.

Not that much of anything has made sense lately, Shepard thought.. Joy. The way the girl acted potentially indicated a Non-Alliance colony, which while uncommon, were not unheard of. And there had been a few naturalist colony ships that disappeared a few decades ago. That would explain the primitive tech, and the strange reaction to biotics.

Speaking of the devil, the girl returned a moment later with a broken piece of flint, and Shepard could have sworn she saw an annoyed look flash on her face for a moment before being replaced with embarrassment. She quickly moved to make the fire.

Shepard settled back, leaning against a rock and watched the girl being to meticulously skin the strange looking rabbit with practiced ease. She was obviously used to hunting. Shepard would have offered to help herself, but without knowing anything about the local fauna it seemed unwise to try and skin it. Best let the professionals handle it.

Instead Shepard decided to do something useful with her time. Her omni-tool might have been on the fritz, but the built in translator still seemed to be working. It would never be as good as an official translation effort… but the built in VI could begin building a proper database. It just needed the data.

"So, uh, it's getting kind of awkward just calling you girl Or you. Or hey. Or hey you. Do you have a name?"

The girl glanced up from her grisly work, and Shepard could have sworn she could feel the sarcasm oozing off of her.

Shepard tapped her fist against her chest. "My name is Shepard. Sheeep. Arrrrd." She pointed toward the girl. "What is your name?"

Puzzlement filled the girl's face. Shepard sighed and tried again. A few tries later she seemed to get the message across, as the girl smiled and pointed at Shepard, then herself. "Anno, Shepahd, Sukei. Suuu. Kei."

Shepard smiled brightly. Finally they were getting somewhere! "Nice to meet ya, Suki. Commander Kamilah Shepard, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance at your service." She extended her hand toward Suki. Suki just gave her a flat look, raising her bloody hands into the light.

"Ah, right. Don't worry about it."

Suki rolled her eyes, before seemingly realizing what she was doing and quickly dug back into the rabbit, cheeks flushed.

Shepard laughed, then began moving to clean the camp. "You are not as timid as you are acting Suki! Lighten up."

Suki responded back, her tone light. They might not have been able to understand each other, but it was good to have someone to talk to. It seemed like forever since Shepard last had a chance to just sit and talk to someone. She had almost forgotten how.

Automatically, she reached out to grab a bag with her biotics, only to realize what she was doing too late. The bag shot right past her, sending Suki diving for cover, and landing right into the fire, scattering hot coals along the ground.

Shepard had the decency to blush. "Well. No need to worry about packing up after dinner right?"

Suki glared absolute daggers.


End file.
